The Gift of the Continuum of Services Part VII: Specialized Schools

While Brown vs. the Board of Education (1954) is right that separate is not equal, separate is not inherently inferior. Having professional experience with different schools for the blind, I can attest to many advantages their blind students have over sighted students attending public schools. These include smaller class sizes, community-based instruction, after-school tutoring, specialized equipment and recreational facilities, a diverse curriculum linked to real-life applications, 16-hour programming, and a disability empowerment climate (Bina, 2005). Most schools for the blind now offer a variety of programs that range from residential life to day school, from intensive support classrooms to inclusion classes, from traditional school-year placements to short-term placements, from early childhood programs to post-secondary transition programs, and from special weekend events to summer camps. Whereas public schools are often relegated to a one-size-fits-all approach, schools for the blind have the ability to offer a tailored approach. Thanks to EHA/IDEA, students with visual impairments are no longer expected to spend their entire academic career at the school for the blind and can come and go throughout Pre-K to 12^th grade as needed. Thus, students who are blind and visually impaired can have their cake and eat it too as they get to experience the best of both worlds.

In order to give me extra time to adjust, I started school a year early and spent two years in the same grade. In retrospect, it seems like it might have been advantageous to do my first year at the school for the blind learning how to utilize all of my senses to compensate for my poor eyesight. In addition to learning how to use low vision devices, it would have been equally beneficial to be introduced to non-visual techniques, particularly beginning braille and cane-travel. While it would have undoubtedly been traumatizing for my mother and I to be away from each other, it would have helped set more realistic blindness expectations that were neither too high nor too low. It also could have given me a head start on self-acceptance and possibly made me less self-conscious about using adaptive tools and techniques. Having peer role models is certainly more powerful than having a preachy TSVI/COMS.

The brutality of middle school pulverized what little self-esteem I had, and thus, this would have been another ideal time for me to attend the school for the blind. Most importantly, it would have helped me broaden my horizons in terms of interests. Perhaps I would have stuck with music lessons and learned to play a variety of instruments, including the handbells. I think I also would have benefited from some art lessons like pottery and sculpting. While I was never going to be a jock, I think I could have found a sport or two I enjoyed, most likely swimming and skiing. Furthermore, I would have been exposed to more age-appropriate social experiences, which might have even included having a boyfriend.

 In order to be successful in college, it was best that I attended my public high school full time. However, summers would have been an excellent opportunity to receive instruction in the Expanded Core Curriculum. In particular, it would have been beneficial at this particular stage to get instruction in career education, orientation and mobility, recreation and leisure, self-determination, and transition. I desperately needed to learn how to use public transportation, how to orient myself to unfamiliar environments, and how to problem-solve when I got lost. This also could have been a more ideal time to get me accustomed to using audio books so that I could take notes and answer comprehension questions more efficiently in order to keep up with advanced placement reading and writing demands. I also could have benefitted from audio typing lessons as it was not uncommon for me to receive an A+ on essays for content and writing style while getting an F- for spelling due to typos.

Most importantly, I needed to experience the feeling of being an insider rather than always being an outsider who occasionally squeezed my way onto the outskirts of various social groups. The only way for me to have gotten this experience would have been through prolonged exposure to others with visual impairments, particularly those who were my same age. While I could have gotten these experiences in my home community by participating in programs offered by the local consumer group for the blind, their insistence on sleep-shade training was terrifying to someone who relied almost exclusively on her residual vision. Perhaps prior exposure to others who successfully used non-visual techniques would have made sleep-shade training seem less daunting. However, I also needed to be around others with partial sight who were learning how to effectively integrate information obtained through all their senses, including vision. While I absolutely needed to learn how to make friends with my sighted peers, it was equally important that I develop a healthy identity as a person with a visual impairment.